Ex-Employer Felt That Sentence Did Not Do Justice To Pain Inflicted On Child By Helper
While the law is written in black and white, achieving justice is a grey area that is highly contentious.
On Wednesday (28 Oct), a helper was sentenced to 14 months’ jail for dipping a baby’s hand into a boiling pot of water.
S’pore Helper Arrested For Allegedly Dipping Baby’s Hand Into Boiling Pot, Investigations Ongoing
On Wednesday (28 Oct), the maid’s ex-employer – aka the mother of the baby – took to Facebook to express her dissatisfaction with the sentence.
The mother felt that the 14 months’ jail time did not do justice to the pain her innocent daughter had to endure.
We summarise the Facebook post after the jump.
Ex-employer felt helper’s remorse does not justify lighter sentence
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), the helper cried when her written apology was read out in court. She was later sentenced to 14 months’ jail for the incident.
However, to her ex-employer Ms Low, the sentence was “miserably short”. She also felt that the helper’s remorse should not warrant her a lighter sentence.
After all, her tears and remorse might be real but so was her toddler’s pain. The anguished mother exclaimed that her daughter,
cried her lungs out each and every time she returns to the clinic to change her dressing
As parents, they felt the pain of the young child and cried together with her.
As this was happening, the mother felt the helper merely gave excuses such as wanting a transfer away from the family.
Ex-employer felt helper deserved heavier jail sentence
On that faithful day, CCTV revealed that the helper intentionally dipped the baby’s hand into the boiling pot.
To make matters worse, she apparently did this repeatedly, dipping the baby’s hand into the hot water 4 times.
Her ex-employer felt that there were grounds for more severe punishment as the helper had intentionally done this to a defenceless child.
Moreover, she expressed in her post that the helper took the opportunity to do this when her elder child was taking a bath.
Even after the incident, it was her elder child who informed the parents and ran her sister’s hand under cool water.
While this was happening, the helper was allegedly “passive”, acting as though nothing happened.
Disputes facts by media outlets
The ex-employer also felt the need to dispute certain facts reported by media and news outlets.
She claims that she had told the helper that her biggest priority should be caring for the child. The helper was only required to cook when there were other caretakers around to look after the child.
Image for illustration purposes only
Source
Furthermore, she said the helper had made a false statement that she was instructed to cook curry chicken by a specific time when the incident occurred.
CNA reported that the helper had requested a transfer after working with the family for 2 weeks as she felt incapable of caring for the 2 children. She later stayed on due to additional transfer costs.
However, the ex-employer explains that the helper had asked for a transfer from the agency, without informing them.
The ex-employer also felt that they had treated the helper as “family” and allowed her to call home regularly. She also claims that they never enforced a time schedule to finish tasks.
The mother asked for the public to be empathetic about the situation and put themselves in her shoes. Her child had suffered painful second-degree burns and will be left scarred and both her other children were traumatised by the incident.
Hope the family will find closure
Our heart goes out to the family. Their predicament is certainly deserving of empathy and understanding.
It’s hard for the public to discern what happens behind closed doors between families and helpers.
This was an extremely unfortunate incident and we can only hope that the family will find solace and closure, despite the dissatisfaction with the eventual ruling.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
